I've been wanting to make a rhinoceros with a rider for a while, so this seems like the right time. I'm going to start high poly so I can extract normal maps to apply to the low poly model. The rhino will likely be armored, harnessed, and ridden upon. Concept art to follow, but here's the high poly model in progress. Maybe even a little zbrush is in order... we'll see.

HIGH POLY FOR NORMAL MAPS:
http://www.thesecretmission.com/cgtalk/rhino.jpg

PhillipCrond

07 July 2004, 08:07 AM

Spent a little bit tonight roughing in a concept. And it's ROUGH! I wanted to capture the rhino kind of "bucking" like a horse might, and get an idea of how some armor might lie on him. You can get a hint of the rider on his back, but I really didn't spend too much time on this, and I'm still trying to get a feel for how this exaggeratedly large rhino might operate in combat. One idea I'm tossing around is putting cannons on his sides, where the saddle comes down, like they're strapped onto him.

So here's the first concept sketch, and mind you it's very rough!! I'd really appreciate any ideas or suggestions... Thanks!

http://www.thesecretmission.com/cgtalk/rhino_concept_rough1.jpg

tpe

07 July 2004, 09:19 AM

The model looks to be coming on nicely :) very rhino like the texture on that thing is going to be delicious. as for ideas it sounds like you have plenty, but one thing that may help is to see if you can get any inspiration from all those old victorian line drawings they did that were very detailed, they may help as references of where to naturally put the armor so to speak, you know the ones something like this http://www.siteaboutnothing.com/images/rhino.jpg ?
tpe

PhillipCrond

07 July 2004, 11:52 AM

tpe - Thanks for the tip on those line drawings. That does kinda lay things out nicely.

Okay, so I got to modeling the high poly version some more, and pretty much finished the rhino itself. Actually, I want to do a zbrush pass on the model, but as for the Maya stage, it's done. Then comes the armor, the saddle, cannons, etc. I'm going to pull normal maps using the nvidia Melody tool, which I tested out, and seems to do an amazing job. So, here's the progress...

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE IN THE LIVING ROOM:
http://www.thesecretmission.com/cgtalk/rhino_gi.jpg

kinkypuss

07 July 2004, 12:04 PM

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE IN THE LIVING ROOM:

heheh.. always wondered how a rhino looked like in a living room.. :D
nice work :thumbsup:

funkyrayuk

07 July 2004, 01:22 PM

looks good. how do you get that white highlight around it in the render. is that SSS or just your lighting setup?

Serul

07 July 2004, 03:46 PM

looks good. how do you get that white highlight around it in the render. is that SSS or just your lighting setup?Falloff map if I'm not mistaken. :)

The rhino is looking pretty good there, nice work! :thumbsup:

ErikSvensson

07 July 2004, 04:40 PM

oh love this one! very nice rhino, waiting for the final version of it =)

PhillipCrond

07 July 2004, 06:39 PM

looks good. how do you get that white highlight around it in the render. is that SSS or just your lighting setup?
Serul is correct, it's just a falloff/fresnel effect. I think other applications have a much easier way of achieving that effect, but in maya, I run a sampler info node into a ramp textures's v cord, and then the outColor of the ramp into the shader's incandescence. Not a "game legal" effect, but for a WIP render, I guess I may as well do it up!

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I'll keep the updates coming!

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